Author: Sheila Green

The men America left behind

I was recently told by a family member that my 4-year-old son whines too much.  As perplexed as I was about someone commenting on a 4 year-old whining, because that’s what 4 year-old’s do, I was more taken aback that the same relative never complains about his older sister, my daughter, who flies into a fit of tears when her pencil breaks or she drops a paper on the floor.  It soon dawned on me that because my son was a boy, they felt like he shouldn’t be crying.  I truly didn’t understand the double standard in this situation.  But, as I began reading The men America left behind by Kirsten Weir, I was given a better understanding of this frame of mind and the issues that come with it. 

Weir points out that the ideology of the male gender norm enforces toughness and a lack of emotionality and we are socialized into these roles from infancy.  In my opinion there is a strong idea of how a man should behave in society.  Showing emotion deemed as feminine and it shouldn’t be that way.  Men are human beings too and carry emotions just like anyone else, but they are afraid to display these emotions out of fear of being shamed.  According to Y. Joel Wong, men who conform to these traditional masculine norms are more likely to suffer from mental health issues like depression and anxiety.  She also touches on how we can begin to eliminate these stigmas through education and promotion of therapy for men.   

I think it is important to open the discussion on issue with masculine ideologies.  There is a shift in our society as to what it means to be masculine and some men are having trouble adjusting because of these ideologies.  The lack of discussion causes men to have the idea that they are in it alone and cannot express themselves freely without being shamed.  Let our men know it is ok to seek therapy and to have a good cry sometimes so that in turn they can teach our boys the same ideals and bring up a new generation of well-adjusted and emotionally sound boys.   

Ideology, Myth, and Magic: Femininity, Masculinity, and Gender Roles

While this reading wasn’t my favorite thus far, I was most drawn to the section about the “Myth of Gender Roles”.  Johnson’s explaination about why gender roles don’t hold up all of the time made perfect sense to me.  The use of a Lawyer/ client relationship or one of a mother and child, it is easy to understand how roles are simply tied to ones position in a social relationship.  Depending on the type of relationship you will play a different role.  Putting this thought into the perspective of gender roles, there really isn’t any situation where someone responds to the question of what role are you playing with I am a male or female because we are never just simply male or female.

Johnson also spoke on a topic that I have believed in for a long time about the roles of male and female.  During a discussion about archetypes in an English class, I came to realize that fairy tales are the perfect forms of propaganda to push gender roles.  There is always a sweet female character that “needs” to be saved by a handsome and “heroic” male character, and by everyone playing their appropriate masculine and feminine roles the characters will live happily ever after.  This perpetuates idea that male and female are supposed to be harmonious and coincide with each other and if you play the proper role you will become magically whole. In my opinion and from reading Johnson’s work, this fuels the normalization of patriarchy.   Getting lost in romantic imagery as he states, makes people believe that isn’t a system of privilege therefore there is no issue at hand.

I think this piece was well thought out and very clear as to what gender roles are and how they give life to patriarchal control of a society.

Hello!!!

Hello!

I’m Sheila and I’m a Junior and a new transfer student at Hunter.  My major is Adolescent Education and Math.  I decided on this course because I’m considering going into Guidence counseling at some point, for either middle school or high school level and I think I would be helpful.

See you around!

Sheila G.